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Monday, 27 October 2014

Marvellous Monday again and it is good to see you here. Welcome to my new followers. As you know Monday is my day to inspire you with a project made using the amazing stamps from Visible Image.

It never ceases to amaze me just how great these stamps are. They are made from top quality polymer, are deeply etched and produce superb images time after time.

The guys at Visible Image, Mark and Helen, do an awesome job with Mark doing the design work and stamp making and Helen running the media and office side. Helen also writes the beautiful verses. They both work really hard to bring us these wonderful stamps. Have you met them at one of the shows? They always have a great stand displaying lots of samples the DT have made including some of mine! They always thank us for our work but they also need to be thanked for producing such wonderful stamps. It is a bit like the chicken and the egg, without one you couldn't have the other!

My project today is a tag made using the butterfly and one of the floral silhouette More than Words sets, Thinking of You.

I recently did a card and tag for Craft Stamper magazine which is where the idea for this tag came from. I started by cutting a tag which was large enough to accommodate three flower heads. Odd numbers always work best for some reason. If you look closely you will see that this isn't a blue tag over a white tag, it is in fact just one tag. I used masking tape to keep the top, left and bottom of the tag white. I used Gentle Blends in Denim to add heavy colouration to the left side of the tag and blending out to nothing towards the right side. Once the base was completely dry I carefully removed the masking tape and used a jet black archival ink to stamp the images. The steams are separate so you can bend them to give them a more natural look. I stamped the main sentiment down the right hand side.

I coloured a small piece of white card with the Denim Gentle Blends. Once dry I stamped the butterfly again in black and cut it out. I took a white paint pen by Posca to add highlights to the flowers and to the butterfly. A piece of white paper ribbon finished off the tag.

Wednesday, 22 October 2014

Hello! Nice to see you back again. If you are new to my blog then 'Welcome!'

Today sees a new theme on the Moo Mania and More blog, the theme is Metal. Now I know a lot of ways to make paper look like metal and it would have been very easy to do just that but this piece is actually made from metal. OK, so it is a thin piece of metal but the point is it IS metal.

I made it using some self adhesive aluminium tape which I have had for years. I don't know what it was originally used for as I picked it up at a scrap store. Do any of you have such a place? It is where manufacturing companies donate their usable waste. Sadly I don't live near it anymore but before I moved I made one last visit to stock up!

Anyway, this sticky aluminium tape was embossed using a steam-punk designed embossing folder. I rubbed some black distress ink over it and buffed it off to give more definition to the cogs. I then added some flat back gems in the centres of some of the cogs.

I wonder how cooking foil would work? Maybe some of the very thick stuff or several thicknesses of a cheaper aluminium foil would work. I will experiment later and let you know.

Hope you have been inspired to join in with the challenge this month? Remember, the blog group is called Moo Mania and More so you can make anything you like. I just stick to making Moos as it is what I enjoy the most.

I will be dropping in on some of your blogs this month as I seem to have a little more spare time on my hands now. I look forward to seeing your challenge entries during the next 2 weeks.

Monday, 20 October 2014

Hello! How was your weekend? I hope you managed to get some crafting done? Another busy weekend here for me decorating. I am currently tiling my kitchen. It is going well. I have always done my own tiling I find the whole process really satisfying. I have a fantastic electric tile cutter which sails through the tiles. I used to use a 'stick' cutter, it had a diamond tip and you would score the tile and crack it over two match sticks. It was a nightmare as it would go something like 'cut two, break one, cut two, break one' and don't even think about cutting a piece out of the tile to go around a socket!!! Now it is a breeze with the fancy electric cutter. Enough DIY, I am beginning to sound like an advert for B&Q!!

My card today features the amazing castle stamp from the Once Upon a Time set. I have used this stamp for all types of scenes from dark to light, from realistic to fantasy. I have combined it here with the cracked glass stamp from the Time after Time set and the birds from the Free your Imagination set.

I started by stamping and heat embossing the cracked glass stamp with white embossing powder onto white card. I then coloured over this with a couple of blue tones of Gentle Blends, Denim and Teal. I then took a piece of white card, masked the edges and coloured this with the same two colours. After taking the masking tape off I stamped the castle in the corner and coloured it in with Gentle Blends in Denim using a paint brush. I stamped the Once Upon a Time words and cut them out before mounting onto the castle panel.

I did one of my bead 'things' for the side. I have a bit of an aversion to bows! I can't seem to make bows wrapped around cards work for me so I came up with this beady-string-knot thing instead.

I hope you have enjoyed this project? It was fun to make and I hope it has inspired you to have a go!

Monday, 13 October 2014

Well, I got caught up in a crafting loop yesterday and spent the wholeday making little books. I am like a tenacious Jack Russell when one of these moods strikes and I just won't let go until the urge has gone! Richard Burton used the word indefatigable in his 1978 narration of Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds and I have taken this word on as 'mine' ever since.

If you follow me you will know that I have a passion for books, whether it is bought ones or making them myself. I also love looking at something and working out how it is made. I had bought a very unattractive looking box recently that looked like a book. It was made of cardboard and fashioned to look like a book. Anyway, I set about taking it apart with a view to decorating it 'my style' when I had that moment that set me off on the day long book making fest.

So, Fairy Books! Little tiny books. They started off very simply with plain white pages but soon progressed into books with writing in, and then I went all out and added stamping!

As you can see from the pictures these books are very small. I used some lovely linen paper from The V&A as the covering. It is just the right quality to cope with covering the books and it comes in a great selection of micro-prints which I think work really well.

I had a little production line on my desk, pages gluing and covers drying. The pages are all held together with a glued spine just like real books! The pages are made to fold out properly with a real spine. I wanted to add a little ribbon bookmark but kept forgetting to stick one in during the assembly! I will do this next time.

As I got more and more familiar with the making process I started to do things like round off the page corners and think about the layout of the stamping. I had such a great time making these books can you tell?

I then went one step further and made a teeny tiny book as a prototype. It is half the size of the ones above, but just like the early big ones I only made it from plain paper just in case it didn't work. But lo! and behold! it did work and so maybe later tonight I will make some baby Fairy books! The ruler shows the size of the books in centimeters.

I have been looking at my stamps today to see if I can make any themed books, maybe just animals or just birds. I usually work with comparatively huge stamps but this project has made me dig out all those little tiny stamps that I never thought I would use. It does mean I need to be careful not to lose one.

If you don't see me for a few days you know where I will be and what I will be doing!

So, what do you fancy doing this week? I officially have NO PLANS, my diary is clear for the whole week!!! No electricians, plumbers or building inspectors are due to visit me. My kitchen has been installed and all the plates, pots, pans, fancy electronic gizmos and such like have been placed in their new homes. All I need to do now is remember where things are! For weeks I have been living in a state of flux. Bare essentials kitchen was set up in the hall way and shock horror, I had to do washing up by hand!! Balance has been restored and I can now get on with an almost 'normal' life. Nice!

Right, here we are on Marvellous Monday and I
have a card for you made using some of the totally awesome 'More than Words'
stamps from Visible Image. These top quality photo polymer stamps are brilliant to use as they are deeply etched giving a brilliant result time after time. Like the other stamps in this range the flower heads are separate from the stems so you can make the flowers look more natural by bending the stem. This is how I made the bunch look like the flowers had just been picked by a little person and thrust in your face with a beaming smile!

I used the Thank You and some paler flowers on the insert.

I started with the background. I recently bought a 'puffer thingy' from Tim Holtz. It is designed to use with the distress ink pens but me being the rebel, I just used it to puff some inks around the page! I used an orange and grey/blue ink. I love orange and black, such a striking combination of colours. The flowers were then embossed on the centres of these spidery ink lines. As I mentioned the stems were added in a bunched format.

As it was a lovely sunny day I managed to get the shots taken outside. The big terracotta pot in the background had to stay in the shot as it matched!

Wednesday, 8 October 2014

What could be brighter and more cheerful than a kaleidoscopic row of beach huts? I really love using Brusho paints at the moment, the colours are so vibrant. I started by randomly colouring a piece of card with a few of the colours.

#72 Bright and Cheerful

I stamped and cut out each hut and then stamped and cut out the doors all on a different part of the painted paper. This gave me the multi-coloured row of huts which I added to a Moo sized background card.

Thanks for visiting me , if you have a moment please leave a comment and tell me what you think of my Moo Mania inspirational project.

Monday, 6 October 2014

Sorry in advance this is going to be a very quick blog post today. (Bet it isn't!! I seem to start with short and sweet in my head and still manage to rattle on for pages!!) I am having my kitchen refitted and that will involve me supervising at every stage and making copious cups of teas for the fitters!

Today I bring you my first project made using the Revolution set of stamps from Visible Image. I was moving house during the release of these wonderful stamps and so have only just been sent a set. They proved to be a big hit at launch, at the recent Alexandra Palace show and via the online ordering so all the available stock kept being allocated to customers. Good news for Visible Image that you all liked them so much so I am not complaining.

I started, as I always seem to these days, by making a background page. I took an A3 piece of white card and coloured it with Brushos in regal colours, so purple and blue, ultramarine to be precise. I know you can see a very vivid turquoise but hold yer' horses and you will find out all about that.

I started with the script stamp and using a fine mister I sprayed water all over the stamp and then stamped the painted background paper. Fairly quickly I blotted the water off with a piece of flat kitchen roll. I find that by keeping the kitchen roll flat I can mop up a larger area more quickly and not run the risk of adding colour when repeatedly dabbing with a bunched up piece. The very light area of turquoise is due to me having used bleach in the mister prior to this project and not remembering to spray the bleach water in the tube and nozzle out first! I don't recommend using bleach with the polymer stamps but accidents happen and I did wash the stamp properly before storing it away. I need to ask Mark, who makes the stamps, if there is any reason why you can't use bleach. Anyway, I continued to build visual texture by stamping different elements from the set in various shades of blue and purple. My tip for this is to keep the stamps all in the same orientation so the pattern doesn't become too complex.

Seeing it this close up it looks upside down! But no worries. It is the effect that I wanted not the reading quality!

I then took the script stamp and keeping it unmounted I inked it up with clear embossing ink. I curled it slightly around my fingers and pressed it onto the background card. Heat embossed in gold you get a lovely random effect with no sharp edges where the script stops and starts.

Having made the big piece I then cut a card sized piece. There is a fair bit left over so I have enough to make another one like this of something completely different! I stamped the stallion and the small Fleur de Lys where I wanted and heat embossed them in gold. Using another piece of the card I stamped the words in gold.

I stamped the large Fleur de Lys on another small piece of the same card and embossed with gold again. I then cut it out and added some clear glaze to make it more of a feature.

Some gold embossed corrugated card and few gold coloured flat back pearls finished off the design.

Click image to link to Visible Image web page for more info about this stamp set.

Wednesday, 1 October 2014

Another month has started and thus we have a new challenge over at Visible Image. The theme this month is, not surprisingly, 'GET SPOOKY!'

Well, it didn't take me long to get things going with an atmospheric scene using the castle from the Once Upon a Time set and the Large Winter Tree.

I started by stamping the castle, then masking and stamping it twice more to make the castle look much bigger. Then using a big circle cut from a sticky note (the sticky bit being used to hold the mask down) I set about creating the sky. I also kept the castles masked during this process.

Taking a piece of torn paper I used Tim Holtz Weathered wood distress ink on a stencil brush to smudge in the clouds. I kept moving the paper, sometimes brushing down from the top, sometimes brushing up from the base. The overall effect is quite dramatic and above all SPOOKY! I removed the masks and very carefully shaded the moon a little with barely a touch of Tim Holtz Scattered Straw, and I mean barely a touch! If you have remembered to keep the piece you cut the circle from you have an exactly the right size stencil to use!

I then used Peeled Paint for the grass in much the same way as for the clouds. I finished the grassy area off with some more black pen lines. I used a black fine liner pen and continued the lines from the stamp to give an horizon and to makes mounds in the grass paying attention to the darker areas.

Because the stamps are clear it was really easy to make sure I was 'planting' my trees in the right place. I didn't want the trees to look like they were floating! I wanted to have a little bit over the castle and a twig or two over the moon. Finished it all off with a few birds from the Free your Imagination set. I don't have the Edward set sadly, there are bats on there and they would have looked even better!

Sky close-up

Now, this second piece is a bit of a mystery to me! But then that is how my creative mind works sometimes! I have no idea what it is meant to be. The idea was more about dreams and nightmares I think, more FREAKY and SCARY than spooky with bending walls and floating skulls

I sometimes get the urge to do something over and over again and this is how this piece started. Helen had supplied me with the Max Rocks stamp set and I used all the little companion images. I stamped onto a piece of paper I had coloured using Brushos and then bleached out certain areas.

I won't dwell on it, I will let you decide how you feel about it. PLEASE leave a comment, either about the Wall & Skull project or the blog in general, below. I love reading your comments.